Browsing Tag: hank green

(intro jingle) Do you menstruate? Do you know somebody who menstruates? If you answered yes to either of those questions then golly do we have the video for you. Fieldwork is a major part of natural history research and exploration and it’s an opportunity that many scientists and students will be granted through out their course of study and careers But what if you’re going to a really remote place with unpredictable bathroom situations or limited access to basic sanitary conditions? As a scientist or even as a hiker, camper or amateur explorer, you may be unprepared for dealing with some of these scenarios. Specifically when it comes to your menstrual cycle. That’s why we’re bringing you some well researched solutions provided by the first-hand experiences of seasoned researchers and yours truly. We learned the hard way so you don’t have to Voiceover Emily: Planning and before you go! First, consider how long you’re going to be away from luxurious things such like flush toilets, pharmacies and privacy. Whether you’re prospecting for fossils in Wyoming, or searching for frogs in Borneo You’d be lucky, and glad, to see a Porta-Potty. Chances are you might be pooping over a hole in the ground but I really encourage you to ask your expedition leader, or tour guide about the commode accomodations before you go. Consequently, which menstrual items you decide to bring will be based off of things like: Your comfort level with various products, your access to clean water, and of the duration of time spent in the field. Are you gonna be gone for two weeks? Or six months? Whatever you decide on, it’s always a good idea to pack whatever you think you’ll need with you before you go. Don’t rely on being able to find what you want once you land in another country, because it’s likely your only option will be buying MaxiPads the size of twin mattresses. It’s not uncommon for those factors to cause your period to go out of whack. You might skip it entirely because of poor nutrition, or because you contracted parasites from ingesting contaminated food or water. Or the opposite could happen and you’ll just have a period for a month straight. Congratulations! As if you didn’t have other things to worry about. Voiceover Emily: Tampons! Applicator, or digital insertion? Whatever you decide, repeat after me: leave no trace. This mantra, used by backpackers and through hikers is true for everything we talk about today. Packing out used menstrual products is no worse than packing out your used toilet paper which also might be required in situations
where it’s too wet to get a fire hot enough to burn your trash. Tampons are great because they don’t take up a
lot of extra space in your bag and applicator-less or ‘digital’ insertion
tampons – like finger insertion – not like you insert it with your iPhone. Come with even less trash. Compare it to the size and amount of plastic in this kinda tampon? And it’s significant. For packing out I recommend bringing additional ziplock bags and paper sacks or an opaque plastic bag if you’re worried about
people seeing what you’re carrying around. I would also recommend storing your used product bag away from your tent or sleeping area and in a way that is
largely inaccessible from forging critters, as to avoid a situation where
odors might attract curious wildlife. Speaking of wildlife, don’t believe the
myths that you hear about bears being attracted to your period. They’re more
interested in your peanut butter unless you’re in like Greenland where there was
actually a study published implicating that polar bears are unusually curious
about your period smells. Voiceover Emily: Pads! I only talked with one person who recommended using pads while conducting fieldwork. They went with the heavy duty nighttime sized ones because they didn’t have the option to change out their other products very
frequently and couldn’t ensure the cleanliness of their hands while
conducting research. Pads also create a lot of extra trash you’ll have to pack out, and they can be uncomfortable if you’re hiking around and sweating all day. Voiceover Emily: Menstrual cups! Menstrual cups are a highly recommended option for many in the field, and hikers, for a few reasons. They create zero extra trash you need to cart around, they’re comfortable and discreet, if you’re
familiar with using one ahead of time and they take up virtually no space in
your bag. You can theoretically wear a cup like this one for 12 hours at a time and only need to empty it twice a day. If it’s your first time using a
menstrual cup, I’d recommend ordering it a few months ahead of your trip so you
have time to practice and be comfortable with it’s use. In order to keep it clean, remove your cup with clean hands, and rinse it with unscented soap and water, if
available. If your water is limited and you won’t have enough to rinse out the soap, then just use water and if you’re concerned about water purity, this might
not be a good option for you. To completely sanitise your menstrual cup, boil it at the end of your period and you can even use spoons or tongs to suspend it in the center of a boiling pot so as to not melt the silicone. If it seems weird to you, to use the camp cooking supplies to sterilize your
menstrual cup just think about it this way: you just completed your first period
on an expedition and there is virtually nothing that can stop you now. Voiceover Emily: Birth control! While I’m not a medical doctor and this in no way constitutes as medical advice another popular option has to do with
either starting new or altering your current birth control before the trip. For those taking the pill, some researchers will skip the placebos entirely and prolong their hormonal treatment to make it through their field
trip, sans period. Intrauterine devices, or IUDs, are also a good option to consider as they have the tendency to decrease the severity or even stop your
period entirely. With that being said, you must talk to your doctor to see if that’s a good idea and that you’re making a decision that is both healthy
and safe for you. Voiceover Emily: Cramps and Discomfort Cramps and general menstrual discomfort can put a huge damper on the excitement and novelty of doing awesome field work, but preparedness, in this case, is key. Bringing ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or
any kind of anti-inflammatory with you is definitely recommended to help take
the edge off. If you like using a heated blanket or electric pad at home, you can always look for one of these air activated heat wraps before you go. You’ll have to pack it out with you but they’re relatively small and can make a world of difference. Or if you’ve got an extra plastic water bottle that could take some heat, fill it with hot water wrap it in an old shirt, and curl up until
you feel better. It’s ok to take a break. Voiceover Emily: “But what if I feel dirty all of the time?” It’s true that you’re going to have to spend more time than it takes you to hop in and out of the shower at home to feel remotely
clean while in the field, but it will be worth it for your health. Yeast
infections can be a problem in areas where humidity is high and hygiene is
less than stellar. Thankfully they’re a prescription to help with this kind of thing, so, again, talk with your doctor to see if that’s a good option for you. And another thing: while I typically don’t recommend using it over regular soap and water, a
bottle of hand sanitizer can go a long way in the field. Make sure when you’re
inserting or removing products or touching areas around your vagina that
your hands are always clean. Also unscented bathroom wipes can be
incredibly helpful when you don’t have access to a hot shower. They don’t take
up too much space and you can pack them out with your other used products. If you’ve got some extra cash then quick-drying camping underwear can be really helpful. The upside is that they’re made of nylon
and spandex which means you can wash them with just a bit of soap and water
and they dry in a few hours. Cotton underwear can take eons to dry in damp tropical environments and they also run the chance of growing mold if
they don’t dry entirely. The downside of synthetic underwear is that after a while they sort of feel like you’re wearing a plastic bag which takes a little
getting used to. They’re also expensive, like, $14 a pair. A couple of pairs can go a long
way but again this is an instance of which you should always want something
clean and dry so pack extras whatever you choose. Voiceover Emily: And whatever happens, happens. Lastly remember that whatever happens,
don’t feel embarrassed by any mishaps. Be honest and upfront with your
expedition leader about your situation. If you’re in a remote field site for
long enough, your business becomes everyone else’s anyway, and as one
researcher told me a little period leakage is nothing compared to the
explosive diarrhea that keeps sending your lab mates sprinting to the woods
every five minutes. Happy Exploring. (cheery string quartet music plays) Anna from Gross Science: Seeing as this week is Valentine’s Day I thought what better way to celebrate than by answering three surprising questions
about periods? In honour of the tens of millions of women who will have theirs that day. (cheery string quartet music plays)

Hello and welcome to the wonderful
world of fungi (fuhn-gahy), or fungi (fuhn-jahy).
Both are acceptable pronunciations. But I say fungi because it’s fungus.
Not fun-jus. Though fun-jus is also fun to say. Fungi are a little bit like plants, and more like animals
than you might think. They diverged from protists
about a billion years ago, and today scientists estimate
that there are about 1.5 million species of Fungi on the earth,
though in a formal, taxonomic way, we only know about
100,000 or so of them. And those that we have met
are wonderful, weird, and, in some cases, deadly. And the fact is, death is pretty
much what fungi are all about. Sure, there are the fun fungi,
like the single-celled Saccharomyces, also known as yeast. Without them, we wouldn’t
have beer, wine or bread. It’s also true that fungi are
responsible for all kinds of diseases, from athlete’s foot to potentially
deadly histoplasmosis, aka spelunker’s lung,
caused by fungus found in bird and bat droppings. Fungi can even make people crazy. When the fungus Claviceps
purpurea grows on grains used to make bread and beer,
it causes gangrene, nervous spasms, burning sensations, hallucinations,
and temporary insanity. One compound in this fungus,
lysergic acid, is the raw material
used to make LSD. And finally there’s the destruction
that some fungi bring onto other animals: More than 6 million
bats in North America have died since just 2007, due to a fungal
disease called white nose syndrome. And a fungus has been
implicated in several extinctions of amphibians and
threatens many more, perhaps as many as a third
of all amphibians on Earth. But none of this is what I mean
when I talk about fungi and death. While some members of the
fungus family are total bummers, all of them together perform
perhaps the most vital function in the global food web: They feast
on the deceased remains of almost all organisms
on the planet. And by doing that, they convert
the organic matter that we’re all made of back into soil,
from which new life will spring. So, fungi: They thrive on
death, and in the process, make all life possible. Aha! You Didn’t expect to see
me in the chair so soon! But before we go any deeper
into the kingdom fungi, I wanted to make a toast to Louis Pasteur
in the form of
a Biolo-graphy. By Pasteur’s time, beer had been
brewed for thousands of years in cultures all over the world. Some experts think it may have
been the very reason that our hunter-gather ancestors started
farming and cobbled together civilization in the first place. But for all those millennia,
no one understood how its most important ingredient worked. Until brewers could actually
see what yeast were doing, the magic of fermentation was…
essentially magic. Pasteur himself was never a big
beer drinker, but part of his academic duties in France required
him to help find solutions to problems for the
local alcohol industry. And as part of this work, in 1857,
he began studying yeast under a microscope and discovered that
they were in fact living organisms. In a series of experiments
on the newfound creatures, he found that in the absence of
free oxygen, yeast were able to obtain energy by decomposing
substances that contained oxygen. We now know that Pasteur was
observing yeast undergoing the process of anaerobic respiration, aka
fermentation, breaking down the sugars in grains like malted barley,
and converting them into alcohol, carbon dioxide and the range of
flavors that we associate with beer. Along the way, Pasteur also
discovered that beer was often contaminated by other
bacteria and fungi. The growth of these beer-spoiling
microbes, he found, could be thwarted for up to 90 days
by keeping beer between 55 and 60 degrees Celsius
for a short period of time. Today, we call that heating process
pasteurization, and it’s used in everything from milk, to canned
foods, to syrups, to wines. For our purposes, the thing
to hold onto here is, Pasteur discovered that yeasts
decompose sugars to get energy. And it turns out, most fungi spend
most of their time decomposing all kinds of organic matter. Often the matter is dead when
fungi get to it, but not always. When a tree, or a person,
or a deer keels over, fungi move in and start
the work of decomposition. Same goes for that orange you forgot
at the bottom of the fruit bowl. If it weren’t for this fungal
function, plants, and the animals that eat them, couldn’t exist
because the elements that they take from the
soil would never return. Thankfully, the decomposition
performed by fungi recycles the nutrients for the enjoyment
of plants and animals as well as for other fungi. All of this points to
one of the main traits that all fungi have in common. From single-celled yeast to giant
multicellular mushrooms, fungi, like us, are heterotrophs. But instead of eating, they absorb
nutrition from their surroundings. They do this mostly by secreting
powerful enzymes that break down complex molecules into
smaller organic compounds, which they use to feed,
grow, and reproduce. Most multi-cellular fungi
contain networks of tiny, tubular filaments called
hyphae that grow through and within whatever
they’re feasting on. Unlike plant cell walls,
which are made of cellulose, the cell walls of fungi are
strengthened by the nitrogenous carbohydrate chitin, the same
material found in the exoskeletons of insects, spiders,
and other arthropods. The interwoven mass of hyphae
that grows into the food source is called the mycelium, and it’s
structured to maximize its surface area, which as we’ve
learned in both plants and animals is the name of the game when
it comes to absorbing stuff. Mycelia are so densely packed that
1 cubic centimeter of rich soil can contain enough hyphae
to stretch out 1 kilometer if you laid them end to end. So as hyphae secrete the digestive
enzymes, fungi use the food to synthesize more proteins,
and the hyphae continue to grow, allowing the fungi to conquer
new territory and grow even more. As a result, fungi can get crazy big.
Record-holding big. A single honey mushroom in
the Blue Mountains of Oregon is thought to
occupy some 2,386 acres. By area, the largest
organism on the planet. Now there are all kinds of crazy
ways that fungi are classified, but probably the easiest and most
useful is organizing them by how they interact with other organisms. The straight-up decomposers
that break down dead stuff, the mutualists, which
form beneficial relationships with other organisms,
especially plants, and then there are the predators,
and the parasites. Decomposer fungi secrete enzymes
that break down and absorb nutrients from nonliving organic
material, such as that tree that nobody heard
fall in the forest. In fact, the ability of fungi
to break down lignin, which is what makes wood woody,
and break it into glucose and other simple sugars is
crucial for the cycle of life. They’re pretty much the only
organism that can do that. They can even decompose proteins
into component amino acids. Basically, all the black bits in
the soil in your backyard are tiny fragments of former
plants digested by fungi. Mutualist fungi are a smaller group. Many have specialized hyphae
called haustoria that tangle themselves with plant roots for
the benefit of both organisms. These guys help plants absorb
nutrients, especially phosphates, by breaking them down
more efficiently than the roots can themselves. In turn, the fungi send out their
hyphae into the plant’s root tissue and withdraws a
finder’s fee, basically, in the form of energy-rich sugars. These mutualistic relationships
are known as mycorrhizae, from the Greek words “mykes,” or
fungus and “rhizon” or root. Mycorrhizae are enormously
important in natural ecosystems, as well as in agriculture. Almost all vascular plants,
in fact, have fungi attached to their roots and rely on
them for essential nutrients. Growers of barley,
the main ingredient in beer, will even inoculate barley
seed beds with specific mycorrhizal fungi to
help promote growth. Other fungi aren’t nearly
so kind to their hosts. Predatory fungi actively capture
prey with their hyphae, the soil fungus Arthrobotrys uses
modified hoops on its filaments to snare nematodes and
absorb their inner tissue. Then there are the parasites,
those fungi that feed on living organisms without killing
them, at least for a while. Take one of my personal favorites: the zombie ant fungus,
or Ophiocordyceps. It shoots spores into an ant,
where their hyphae grow into its body and absorb nutrients from
non-essential ant organs. When the fungus is ready to
reproduce, it invades the ant’s brain and directs it to march to a cool,
moist location in the forest where its so-called
fruiting spores erupt through the ant’s head to
spread even more spores. And just to prove that
even fungi have superheroes, in 2012 scientists discovered
that these zombie spores have themselves been targeted
by another parasitic fungus. Not a lot is known about
this ant-saving fungus, other than it sterilizes
many of the zombie spores through a process likened
to chemical castration. That is so messed up. Weird! Alright now, since
I brought that up, we should talk briefly
about fungus sex. Fungi reproduce any way they can,
either sexually or asexually. Some species even do it both ways. But whichever way they
choose, most propagate themselves by producing enormous numbers
of spores, much like we saw in nonvascular plants
and the simplest of vascular plants, the ferns. But, and this is a big but,
sexual reproduction in fungi isn’t like sex in any other
organism we’ve studied so far. The concepts of male and female
don’t apply here. At all. Some fungi reproduce on their own. Others can reproduce with
any other individual that happens to be around. And still others can only
mate with a member of a different so-called mating type:
they’re not different sexes, they just have different
molecular mechanisms that either make them compatible or not. Sometimes these types are
called plus or minus, and other times 1 and 2. In any case, it’s still
considered sexual reproduction, because each parent
contributes genetic information when they make with
the spore-making. It all starts with this
beautiful chemical mating dance, as the mycelium from one fungus
sends out pheromones that are picked up and bound to receptors by
another willing and able partner. This binding compels each mycelium
to send its hyphae toward the other. When they meet, they fuse the
cytoplasm of their cells, a stage of reproduction
called plasmogamy. Sometime between hours
and centuries later, yes, it can literally take hundreds
of years for fungi to have sex, this union leads to the
production of spores that each fungus is
then able to disperse. Certain types of fungi,
including the tasty morel, produce spores in sac-like
asci contained in fruiting bodies
known as ascocarps. That is the part you pick when
you’re wandering through the forest. Some fungi shoot their
spores off into the breeze, other spores float
away on the water. More enterprising spores will
hitch a ride on passing critters, hopefully to be dropped off
somewhere where there’s plenty of nutrients to absorb, so they too
can grow, send out sexual pheromones when their time comes and let
their hyphae do the tango. Finally, for some fungi, sexual
reproduction just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. They’d rather just get
it on with themselves. Some of these grow
filamentous structures that produce spores by mitosis. These structures are visible,
and they’re called molds, the stuff on the orange in
the bottom of the fruit bowl or the heel of the piece of bread
that you left for a roommate who decided to leave it
for the other roommate who thought that you’d
rather have it. In the unicellular yeast,
the asexual reproduction occurs by old-fashioned cell division
or the formation of buds that get pinched off
into separate organisms. Since some species of yeast,
like our beer-making friend, Saccharomyces cerevisiae,
convert sugars into alcohol, brewers create conditions that
encourage high rates of yeast production, like giving
them lots of sugar and oxygen, since more yeast means more alcohol. So, yeah, fungi!
They feast on death, and they can make us go
insane and turn ants into unholy zombies of the night. But because of their hard
work and strange ways, they make possible stuff
like agriculture and beer and everything else
worth living for. So thanks to the fungus.
And also thanks to you for watching this episode
of Crash Course Biology. And of course, thanks to the people
who helped me put it together. They’re awesome. Thank you guys! There’s a table of contents over
there if you want to click on it and go review any of the stuff that
you want to reinforce in your brain. And if you have questions
or comments or ideas for us, we’re on Facebook and
Twitter and of course, we’re down in the comments below. We’ll see you next time.

Dr. Lindsey Doe: You can learn things in textbooks and classes and YouTube videos about human sexuality, but ultimately it’s going to be your body that teaches you the nuances of your sexuality. I know! My body has taught me lessons that do not come up in sex ed. — Intro Cut Scene — Memory: I’m 18 and indecisive about the guy I’m seeing. We’re having sex in the top bunk in my dorm room, and I conclude that “yep, I’m not into him” so he kindly pulls his penis out of my vagina, and we go our separate ways. A week later I’m sitting on the toilet, wiping front to back and feel two things: 1.) a squirming in my vaginal canal like a worm or something is in there and 2.) a lumpy wet foreign object wadded up between my labia. I try to scoop up the lumpy thing with toilet paper but as I pull it out the squirming worm thing is like *bllllleggggh* inside me. What is that??? The condom from the week before had come off during sex, lodged itself in my vagina, unnoticeable until that moment, and what’s worse, is that it had blocked menstrual blood from flowing. My vagina is not a rancid black hole, but that day? It felt like one. Lesson: Vaginal muscles can pull condoms off and condoms can slide off by themselves, especially if someone loses an erection. If you’re missing a condom, the vagina is a place to look. Memory: I’m having this weird time going to the bathroom where I have this huge urge to urinate and then I get there and there are only a few drops. This happens again and again until the cycle starts hurting, so I go to the clinic where the doctor explains “The Honeymoon Disease” to me. Lesson: Urinary Tract Infections (or UTIs) are usually caused by bacteria from the anus getting into the urethra. Because a lot of couples having exciting sex on their honeymoons will change positions and slosh fluids around, they easily move germs from the backside forward and contract UTIs, thus the fitting nickname. Go to the bathroom after sex, and if anything touches the anus, do not put it in the vagina or near the urethra until it has been washed. Memory: I was eating black olives and watching TV when a sharp nasty pain in my lower abdomen started and I ended up writhing on the floor. I checked into the emergency room, certain my appendix had burst, but after a pelvic exam, x-rays and hours of waiting, what they found was an ovarian cyst. Lesson: Cysts are pockets of fluids that can grow anywhere on the body. They’re usually harmless and go away on their own, but sometimes they become infected and grow dangerously large. Medical providers are trained to know what’s going on with our bodies, and so my recommendation is to check in if you’re concerned. But, knowing that there’s an alternative explanation can be really helpful. I now know that just before my period, I will sometimes be really sore here or here, and if it wears off, even just a little, it’s probably an ovarian cyst that will pass — not an alarm for frustrating and expensive trips to the emergency room. Memory: Sex was excruciating. it felt like a jagged sword or a lit torch was going inside me, and half a dozen doctors I saw couldn’t diagnose anything. Maybe I was allergic to my birth control, my partner’s penis, his semen. Maybe I wasn’t hydrated. Maybe I needed more foreplay. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I was sad, and horny. Feeling like some cosmic joke: the sexologist who couldn’t have great sex. Finally, I found myself sitting in a Planned Parenthood, talking to someone about my relationships. I wasn’t half-naked, and she wasn’t inspecting my vagina. Instead, I was sharing my sex history, and she was truly listening. Which, turns out, is one of the most effective solutions for a condition called dyspareunia (pain during intercourse) Lesson: In my case, the swords and torches sensation was psychological. My body was having physical symptoms for something emotional – a really unhealthy relationship. When I was heard by the woman at Planned Parenthood, I was able to process my emotions and give my vagina a break from trying to protect me. This is what I do for clients. Memory: There’s this really thick white discharge on the condom when my partner pulls out. I take a shower and reach a clean finger inside to see if there’s more. Yep, clumps of yogurty paste. I assume it’s an out of control yeast infection but tests come back normal. Every once in a while though, I’m having sex and there’s this white stuff which I now call “the mean stuff” because it increased friction. So I reached out to sexologists and gynecologists about what was happening to my body. None of them knew. I didn’t find out until I looked online and read the story of a microbiologist with her own mean stuff, who put it under a microscope and identified it as Lactobacillus. Lesson: Lactobacillus is a positive, healthy bacteria in the vagina. But if it’s doing too well, the overgrowth of good actually becomes bad. And this is really easy to have happen because if you think it’s a yeast infection because of the white discharge and the itchiness, then you treat it with more probiotics. There’s still a lot of mystery – especially around vaginas, and sex education tends to neglect everything I’ve talked about, but, if you’re open to your body being a teacher, and you stay curious, then the mystery won’t be so agonizing. Thank you for listening to my now-solved vagina mysteries. If you have your own, please feel free to share them in the comments. I’m wondering: what have you learned from your own body? What are you still curious about? If you’re missing a vagina… Sword or lit torch *stumbles over words* a peh and a pooh A condition *stumbles over words* *vocalizations* *Slowly* The Vah-gi-na

It almost sounds like a Sherlock Holmes case: A 61-year-old man staggers into a Texas emergency
room feeling light-headed, nauseous, and dizzy. The nurses think he looks kinda hammered,
so they give him a Breathalyzer test, and sure enough, his blood alcohol concentration
clocks in at a very drunk .37 percent. But thing is, the guy claims he hasn’t had
a single drink today. In fact, he says he’s been experiencing
sudden and unexplained bouts of drunkenness for years. So what’s up? Is the guy a closet drinker?
Is he suffering some kind of amnesia, or sleep-boozing, or what? The doctors decide to check the man’s pockets
for hidden booze, then monitor him in an isolated hospital room for 24 hours. They have him
eat a lot of carb-heavy foods while staff take various readings and watch what happens
to his blood alcohol content. What they eventually find, is that the guy
has an over-abundance of brewer’s yeast in his digestive system, and it’s basically
turning his guts into a fermentation vat, converting carbohydrate sugars into ethanol,
and getting him sloshed. As you’ve probably guessed by now, this
story actually happened, back in 2010. And in the end, the man’s doctors diagnosed
him with auto-brewery, or gut fermentation syndrome. Basically, his digestive system
was turning carbohydrates into alcohol. Cue the beer belly jokes.… Here’s what his doctors figured was happening: When most people eat yeasty foods, the yeast
passes right on through their body. But sometimes it’s possible for that yeast to stick around
in larger numbers. The Texan man’s troubles seem to have started
after he completed a hardcore round of antibiotics that wiped out his good gut bacteria, eliminating
the competition and allowing yeasts and other fungi to take over. So whenever he’d eat carbohydrates, the extra
yeast in his digestive system would start fermenting those carbs into alcohol, which
would end up in his bloodstream. He was literally getting drunk on bread. The doctors treated the man by having him
take antifungal drugs and probiotics to restore his good bacteria. They also had him eat a
low-carb diet help to keep the yeast in check. Now, this wasn’t the first-ever case of auto-brewery
syndrome. Some children with short bowel syndrome — an
intestinal condition that makes proper nutrient absorption difficult — have also shown signs
of extra yeast causing intoxication. And researchers in Japan have documented similar
reports of serious digestive yeast infections and spontaneous tipsiness, dating back to
the 1970s. Even so, this syndrome is both rare and controversial,
because all we have is this handful of mysterious case studies. It’s just hard to figure out what’s actually
causing the problem without more research — like a controlled clinical trial. Plus, when it comes to getting drunk without
drinking, an over-abundance of yeast may not be the only factor involved. There’s also a problem with certain enzymes. Normally, alcohol gets broken down by particular
liver enzymes. But in some people, genetic mutations mean
they don’t produce those enzymes properly. So they can end up feeling drunk after drinking
a relatively small amount of alcohol. This mutation affects a disproportionate number
of Asian people — about one in three, which could help explain why Japan has the highest
number of reported gut fermentation syndrome cases. Combine extra yeast with a rice-heavy diet
and abnormal enzymes and you might find yourself getting accidentally sauced as those carbohydrates
turn to ethanol that doesn’t get processed quickly enough. It’s pretty easy to test for these enzyme
deficiencies, but so far there’s no definitive test for auto-brewery syndrome in people with
the usual enzymes. Since it’s so difficult to clearly diagnose,
it would be hard for researchers to set up studies and trials. So, until there’s a better way to diagnose
it, auto-brewery syndrome is a condition that will probably continue to be rare and mysterious. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow,
which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon. If you want to help support this
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Fingernails and toenails, they’re not just for decoration. They protect your fingers and toes and help you pick up tiny things, like splinters or that piece of spinach stuck between your teeth after lunch. And they can also tell you a lot about your health. Nails are collections of dead cells that grow from a root called a Matrix hidden just beneath your cuticle, the lighter crescent shaped area at the base. The matrix constantly makes new cells called Plate Cells, and each layer pushes the old, dead plate cells out of the cuticle. When nails start to grow differently or even change color, it usually means that there is something wrong with the matrix or with the surrounding tissue. So by working backward, you can often figure out what’s doing the interfering, and in the process maybe learn something about what’s going on in your own body. Beau’s Lines, for example, are horizontal ripples on the surface of the nail. They look like little waves, and they form when the matrix stops producing new cells for a while. When the matrix starts making new cells again, they push the nail out as usual, but there is an indentation marking the spot where it stopped, kind of like a tree ring. And there’s a reason why the matrix would’ve hit the pause button. Probably, it wasn’t getting enough nutrients from the blood stream. Usually, that means the person has an infection or some other kind of serious illness. That’s why people who have high fevers for a while, often develop Beau’s lines a month or two after- -wards. Pitted nails are another potential matrix issue, where the nails surfaces have indentations that look like very small pot holes. The pits are linked to skin disorders, like Psoriasis and Eczema, which can cause inflammation of the matrix. An inflamed matrix produced new plate cells unevenly, so you end up with depressions on the nail surface. Nails can also change color, something you’ve probably noticed if you’ve studied your nails on a cold day, and realized they were blue. Generally, that means that your extremities aren’t receiving enough oxygen. Blood with low oxygen is darker and reflects light differently through your skin making your nails look blueish. It could just be your body reacting to cold by constricting your blood vessels, but a person whose blood isn’t receiving enough oxygen could have a respiratory illness, like asthma or emphysema. Blue nails can also be a sign of Raynaud’s Disease. A disorder marked by spasms in a person’s blood vessels that narrow them. The narrowing reduces blood flow to the extremities, so they get blue nails. Now blue nails, it not actually the nail changing color, it’s the bed underneath it. But nails can also turn yellow, and that’s actually the nail changing color, this can happen for a lot of different reasons. In most cases, it’s cause by a fungal infection known as Onychomycosis. Yeast or mold sets up shop within the actual nail plate, turning it yellow. It doesn’t smell to good either. Other times, the yellow nails means something more serious, like Yellow Nail Syndrome, which doesn’t sound super serious, but it happens when the matrix does produce new plate cells but very slowly, so they pile up and create a thicker yellow-ish nail plate. But like Beau’s Lines, Yellow Nail Syndrome is caused by something else. It could be a chronic respiratory disease, which would reduce the nail’s oxygen supply and slow growth. Or it could be sign of an issue with the Lymphatic system, which distributes protein rich fluid throughout the body. Usually, that issue is cancer or aids. A black or brown streak in a nail can also be super serious, or nothing at all. In some people that streak can signal Subungual Melanoma, a form of skin cancer that affects the nail bed, which is the skin underneath the nail plate. Melanoma often changes the color of the skin, including the skin under nails. But the streak also might be harmless, if you have a darker complexion it’s completely normal. So it could be something, or it could be nothing. Which is why of you’re worried about the color or the look of your nails, here’s a tip. Don’t get all your medical advice from the internet! These changes can mean more than one thing, so talk to a real doctor before jumping to any conclusions. We are not a real doctor. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon, who give us money so that we can do this, which is really nice. If you want to help support this show, you can go to Patreon.com/SciShow and do not forget, if you want to get smarter with us, to go to YouTube.com/SciShow and subscribe.